This invention relates to video imaging technology, and more particularly, concerns the application of video imaging technology for creating realistic video images depicting the appearance of a simulated object in an actual environment.
Architects and other design professionals have for many years relied upon an artist's sketch or rendering to communicate the appearance of a proposed design project and how the project would interact with its environment. With the advent of computer video imaging technology, there has been considerable interest in applying this video imaging technology as a tool for the architect or designer to produce video images showing how proposed projects and designs would appear in an actual environment. This has the advantages of providing a presentation medium that can be easily understood by most viewers, regardless of their background, and these simulations are very realistic and are void of stylistic touches.
For example, systems have been proposed which permit captured video images to be "cut and pasted" together to create a composite image. The results are analogous to a photo montage. The system may even provide an image library of objects, for example, images of trees, which can be retrieved and "pasted" into a background image of an actual scene. However, since the video images of the proposed objects are pixel-based (bit-mapped) images, there are severe limitations in the amount of manipulation and modification which can be made of the images.
CAD (computer aided design) systems have become available which operate like a computerized drawing board and enable an architect, designer, planner, or engineer to create three-dimensional computer models of proposed projects and structures, and to display these structures from various orientations, e.g. plan views, elevational views and perspectives. While the available CAD systems serve as an excellent tool in designing and illustrating the proposed structures, existing CAD systems do not attempt to provide a way to show how the CAD model of the structure would appear in a particular environment.
Systems have been proposed in which a CAD-generated image of a proposed building or the like is overlaid onto a video background showing an actual environment. This approach is shown for example in the July 1987 issue of Versatility, published by Ariel Communications, Inc., Austin, Tex., where on the cover there is shown a CAD-generated image of a building overlaid onto a captured video background of an urban area. To the untrained eye, this image may appear reasonable. Upon closer inspection, however, it becomes apparent that the perspective of the rendered building is much different from the perspective of the image in the background. The image was created through a process which involved approximation and "eyeballing". Indeed, in the following month's issue of the magazine the author explained why the previous month's cover image was inaccurate and how he went about creating this approximation. Other systems have been proposed, or introduced, which similarly seek to superimpose a CAD-generated model into a video image of an environment. However, such systems are largely experimental or developmental, and lack facilities to insure accuracy and realism in the resulting images.
With the foregoing in mind, it is an important object of the present invention to provide a system and method for producing highly realistic video images depicting the appearance of a simulated structure in an actual environment. More particularly, it is an object of this invention to provide a video imaging system of the type described which deals with the accurate placement of the structure in the environment and matching of the perspective of the structure with that of the environment so that a highly realistic result is achieved.